Friday, December 31, 2010

Millenia Black is the balliest person that I've ever met. She strives to keep a positive outlook in this industry, despite what happened to her.It was an honor to close out 2010's Examiner columns with her and other authors who weighed in on seg-book gation.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Johnny Temple, the Founder and Publisher of Akashic Books, is a breath of fresh air to midlist and big-name authors alike whose publishing houses just don't get them. Here's what he had to say about how and why he, a former rock star, started a publishing company, as well as his goals for said company:

Sunday, September 05, 2010

As one reads Tony Blair's new memoir, for which he reportedly received a $7 million advance, one gets a feeling of, to steal shamelessly from Yogi Berra, déjà vu all over again. In the introduction of A Journey: My Political Life, Blair states that, with only one chapter covering 2007 to now, the book spans the period from 1997 to 2007. Film buffs who do not want to spend $35 retail for the hardcover book can watch not only one movie, but three of them, to get the Cliff Notes on Blair’s ascension to and occupation of the office of Prime Minister.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

One perk of my Examiner gig is that I get to talk to people whose work I admire. One such person is the actress Tanya Wright. I love her on TRUE BLOOD, and I even remembered her a LaMuzindah in the flick THE BROTHERS.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

The incendiary immigration debate flared white hot when Arizona’s infamous SB 1070 law took effect last Thursday. Even somewhat defanged by a judge’s ruling, the strict, sweeping measure aimed at illegal immigrants remains a lightning rod in a debate, the ripples of which permeate even the most unlikely parts of American society. Even artistic expression. Latino author Raul Ramos y Sanchez knows this all too well.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

The confirmation hearings paving Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s way to the Supreme Court began this week on Capitol Hill, just as nonagenarian John Paul Stevens, the man she’d been nominated to replace on the high court, quietly retired into history. As journalists and legal scholars alike ponder the shape of Stevens’ legacy, authors Bill Barnhart and Gene Schlickman reflect on the justice’s early years in John Paul Stevens: An Independent Life, their self-proclaimed first biography of the Supreme Court’s number one dissenter.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear stops at Politics and Prose today here in Washington DC,touring in support of The Mapping of Love and Death, the most recent installment in the mystery franchise featuring Maisie Dobbs.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Apple sold 300,000 iPads sold on April 3, its launch day. This, Apple proudly crowed in a press release today. Not bad for a device that lists from $499-$829, depending on the desired available gigabytes.

Before the iPad’s highly awaited debut, the buzz had begun concerning how the iPad would stack up against e-readers in general and to Kindle, the Moby Dick of e-readers, in particular.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s memoir, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness is #1 on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller List. Romney’s book has dethroned another political tome, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change is #3 on the list. This comes at a time when no less than nine books on this week’s list concern American politics and/or political figures...

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Germantown author Karyn Langhorne Folan strikes pay dirt with Don’t Bring Home a White Boy and Other Notions that Keep Black Women from Dating Out, in stores February 2. The book, exploring the notions steeped in slavery and cultural mythology that keep single black women leery of interracial coupling, is sure to touch a nerve...

Don’t Bring Home a White Boy and Other Notions that Keep Black Women from Dating Out by Germantown author Karyn Langhorne Folan hits stores tomorrow. The provocative tome examines the notions steeped in slavery and cultural mythology that keep single black women leery of interracial coupling, even in the face of overwhelming evidence and statistics that suggest that eschew it at their peril...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

My sister Chrissy Love is a radio personality in The Bahamas – and a certified patchouli-wearing hippie. Where I’m tightly wound, she is loose as a goose. Probably comes from living in the land of endless sunshine, pristine beaches, and Bacardi Gold. Whenever I stress about the possibility of something going belly up, she tells me that I must relax and affirm a positive outcome. I’m generally not a relaxer and affirmer; I am more of a planner and a strategizer. Lately, though, I am beginning to think that she has the solution for the author who always seems like that dog that keeps chasing its tail. And we all know what George Clinton said about that.

But back to relaxing and affirming a positive outcome. For almost a year now, I’ve been covering the publishing industry for Examiner.com. I do this in my effort to understand an industry that had stymied me. Almost a year later, rather than having the answers, I only have more questions. Mostly though, while covering the writing careers of others, I speculate about my own in this context and wonder if all of my efforts meant to further said career have any traction somewhere.

I try to use the success of others whose struggles are similar to mine as some kind of a barometer. The rationale for this comes from Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker who says that successful role models are closer than you think. Take my girl Karyn Langhorne Folan. She wrote an editorial for The Washington Post almost three years ago on Loving Day, June 12. That led to her latest joint Don't Bring Home a White Boy and Other Notions that Keep Black Women from Dating Out, which drops February 2nd. She announced on Facebook that she and her book will be featured in April’s Essence magazine. Talk about the Role Model Next Door. She and other authors that I know who have recently sold work help me to keep hope alive.

As I was headed off to The Plantation – aka, work – on the train last month, I was reading The Washington Post Express, the free paper available to commuters. As I usually do, I skipped to the back of the paper and read my horoscope. Usually, horoscopes are very vague and nebulous, like Nostradamus predictions. This one though from December 8 spoke to me:

While someone close to you may be rocketing to the top, don’t let yourself be discouraged because you have a longer curve.

For this reason – at least concerning my writing career – my sister’s earthy-crunchy advice resonates. Because the signs in the heavens and on earth tell me that if I stay the course, relax, and affirm a positive outcome, I might just get it.

About Me

I'm the President of Duho Books. I'm also the author of Writing While Black, Triptych, Back to Life (2004 Romantic Times Award nominee), and What You Won’t Do For Love (optioned for cable television). Until recently, I was Examiner.com’s DC Publishing Industry Examiner. I've written for music and fashion/lifestyle magazines in both
New Jersey and The Bahamas. I co-hosted The Book Squad
with Karyn Langhorne Folan and earned an Associated Press/Chesapeake Award for my work as a
commentator for Metro Connection on WAMU, a Washington D.C. National
Public Radio affiliate. Here's my web site: www.wendycoakley-thompson.com. I'm also on Facebook and Twitter.